Kacie Kelly has over 20 years of experience leading innovation in mental health care and translating it into policy and practice. As Chief Innovation Officer at the Meadows Institute, she leads work to integrate scalable, data-driven innovation into healthcare, schools, justice, and community systems to detect mental health risks earlier and increase access to quality care for more youth and adults. Additionally, she works to harness the power of public and private partnerships to advance innovative funding models that incentivize best practices in mental health care delivery and seeks opportunities to integrate technology into the systems of care to accelerate adoption solutions and optimize workforce demands.  She was selected as a Senior Fellow in the Policy Entrepreneurs Network, a spinoff of Schmidt Futures, and she serves as an Advisor in the OneMind Accelerator and in the Texas Medical Center’s HealthTech Accelerator. In June of 2024, Kacie was also invited to serve on the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Mental Health in the Modern World Steering Committee, joining other experts to encourage new conversations that will advance the understanding and application of emerging technologies in mental health.

Prior to joining the Institute, Kacie served as the Director for Health & Wellbeing at the George W. Bush Institute’s Military Service Initiative, where she advanced innovative outcome-based solutions for mental and brain health challenges through partnerships, collaboration and alignment among national and international stakeholders including the Bush Institute’s Veteran Wellness Alliance and the Stand To Health & Wellbeing Task Force. Kacie spent 15 years leading ground-breaking mental health and suicide prevention initiatives at the Department of Veterans Affairs.  During that time, she established public-private partnership programs, led national systems transformation initiatives on innovative care models and directed outreach efforts to reduce stigma associated with mental health. Kacie earned her bachelor’s degree and Master of Health Sciences from Louisiana State University, a Graduate Certificate in Women in Public Policy and Politics from the University of Massachusetts, and a Certificate in Harnessing AI for Breakthrough Innovation and Strategic Impact from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kacie-kelly-04667763

X:  @KacieAKelly